Photo box diving

Out of pure boredom I grabbed my old big photo box tonight, in the hope to come up with an idea for a blog story.

Well.....

I found this one. Taken in 1990. I was department manager at the Atlanta Macy's flagship store, china/crystal/silver department.

One of the china brands we sold was a line of Mottahedeh china (Motta whut?)
Along with all the other famous brands such as Lenox, Noritake, Villeroy & Boch, Portmeirion, Coalport, Haviland, Royal Doulton, etc etc etc.

So at one point, Mildred Mottahedeh invited our buyers, and the managers of the best selling stores (ahem) to come and visit her in New York, spend the day at her offices and have lunch at her apartment.

Now here was an interesting lady.

To make it easy on myself, check out this website:

http://www.onecountry.org/e114/e11415as_Mottehedeh.htm

or:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Mottahedeh

She died the year after we visited her. The day we visited her was an incredible experience for the few of us privileged to be invited.

The china her company produced was some of the most incredible stuff I had ever seen. Her showroom was finger licking gorgeous. We all were quiet and in awe.

Meeting this formidable woman in person was like meeting the queen. Her apartment was a museum. Some rooms had double walls, that opened up to show the most rare and beautiful and old pieces of china, figurines. Everywhere you looked there was stuff, undoubtedly very valuable and rare.

As you can see in the picture, we were all so enthralled with this woman. I'm second from the right, with the blue Laura Ashley dress on (groan!)...and weighing a ton less than I do now, and NO gray hair either.

The entire trip was paid for, flew first class, stayed overnight in a super hotel. What a treat!

I guess I can say that that job was one of the best jobs I ever had. I loved retail, loved china and pretty things, still do, but now the glamour has worn off, and we're in a completely different world now.

In the box I also found a stack of old negatives. Black & white, all Wheelie's old stuff, with pictures of his kinds when they were little. I'd love to send it to them, but....I'll wait....I wish I had a dark room so I could develop these old negatives....

Just love my pictures....just love 'em....and the memories they bring....

SGMKJ!